but I am not sure whether it will work for you, because your file does not seem to be a regular CSV file. If not, you'll have to parse the file yourself, which doesn't seem to be very complicated, but you'll need at least a basic comprehension of Perl.

Parsing of a csv file can be as simple as split-on-comma or as complex as a module will allow. The choice depends on the data. If you expect any real help, we will need a reasonably long sample of realistic (preferably real) data. I already have a few questions which could be answered from that data.

The location field is clearly very important. The concept is probably perfectly clear to you. I think I can guess what a 'postcode' is, but certainly not well enough to parse the location field.

Quote

duration char, -- P or T or NULL

One field or two?

Can any of your text contain commas? If so, how are they escaped? Good Luck, Bill

Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply , your time and help is appreciated. I am attaching a sample data set. I have about 20 mins spare everyday to learn perl , slowly but surely....If anyone has any tips on the sections of perl I should be learning to make my quest easier I would be forever grateful. I require the output as a simple txt file. I am abroad and am returning to the UK in a hurry and need the info for job hunting. Thanks again for all replies.

Processing this data is beyound my skill level. I have already found the following problems.

Header record does not match your posted specification.

No record appears to conform to either one

Fields with similiar data are not always in the same field position

We only need two fields (location and apply). Location is always in the third field, but the apply field cannot be identified by position. Its content is free form so there is little hope of identifying it lexically.

The record format is much to complex to break into fields with split. The module which Laurent suggested fails with no useful information. There probably is a module solution, but I will not look for it because I have already wasted too much time on what appears to be a hopless task. Good Luck, Bill